Amid earthquake risks of significant magnitude along the Marmara region’s fault line, the Transport and Infrastructure Ministry is leading efforts to protect Istanbul’s vital structures, including the Bosporus bridges.
Transport and Infrastructure Minister Abdulkadir Uraloğlu shared a comprehensive evacuation strategy, prioritizing mitigating the chances of casualties and ensuring the availability of essential resources on Thursday.
“Our foremost objective will be to swiftly deploy search and rescue teams and medical personnel, both domestically and internationally,” Uraloğlu said, adding: “Secondly, our focus will be on facilitating access to water, food and emergency provisions for the affected region. Third, we will relocate individuals in danger to secure zones.”
The minister underscored that this approach encompasses a coordinated utilization of road, rail and air networks.
Preemptive measures have already been set in motion to fortify pivotal structures like the Bosporus bridges against potential seismic events. “We completed the replacement of all July 15 Martyrs Bridge suspension cables while work continues to upgrade earthquake wedges and expansion joints on the Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge,” Uraloğlu elaborated.
The plan extends to reinforcing roadways throughout Istanbul, he added.
The resilience of key installations, including Istanbul Airport, the Eurasia Tunnel and the Marmaray railway, has been assessed to meet seismic requirements, affirming their readiness in the face of earthquakes, Uraloğlu affirmed.
Highlighting the strategic significance of major roadways, Uraloğlu maintained: “The D-100 highway connecting Istanbul to the July 15 Bridge, TEM highway and the Northern Marmara highway, constituting the city’s arterial lifelines, have been engineered to be earthquake-resistant.”
In an expansion of the evacuation plan, the Osmangazi Bridge has been incorporated because of its robust earthquake preparedness,” he emphasized.
Addressing concerns about preparedness for the anticipated tremors, Uraloğlu asserted: “We are fully equipped in terms of major thoroughfares within our ministry’s purview, excluding inner city areas.”
The minister also detailed plans for utilizing both Sabiha Gökçen and Atatürk Airports. “Sabiha Gökçen’s new runway is nearing completion, accompanied by a new terminal. Moreover, Atatürk Airport boasts a sturdy runway capable of managing substantial air traffic, ensuring its utilization.”
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change is in the process of devising a comprehensive four-phase plan as part of the aim to enact a special earthquake law, Özhaseki said earlier in August.
The question of the earthquake in Istanbul is topping the country’s agenda following the massive quakes in Türkiye’s southeast that killed over 50,000 and left hundreds of thousands of buildings destroyed.
The city, which last suffered heavy damage from earthquakes in 1999, is on edge in light of the repeated warnings by experts about the anticipated “big one,” an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.0 or higher.
Pointing out that there is ongoing urban transformation work, the minister told journalists that the transformation project currently continues in 188 locations in all 39 districts of the city.
“At the moment, the renovation works of around 165,000 residences are underway,” he added.
“In the second stage, we determined the reserve housing areas. In these areas, we can build new, solid, reliable houses for up to 350,000. I think that we will take the second step of earthquake preparation by moving the most risky structures to new locations,” he said.
“Third, we have another campaign that was announced before the election, and that is the ‘Half of Us’ campaign,” Özhaseki stated, referring to the campaign through which the state assists citizens in demolishing and rebuilding their buildings by covering half of the cost.
Özhaeski noted that over 1 million applications had been registered so far as part of the project, including independent housing entities and common applications. He said that the number of buildings with 100% agreements stands at 14,000, which equals 71,000 separate units.
“In the fourth stage, we are considering enacting a special law for Istanbul. We want to take the measures to eliminate whatever obstacles we have encountered in the urban transformation work in Istanbul, which has been going on for 11 years, and enact the law,” he underlined.
Türkiye is among the world’s most seismically active countries. It is situated on several active fault lines, and dozens of minor earthquakes and aftershocks occur daily. On average, the country struggles with these natural disasters once in a decade.
